Specifying DDA Handrails on a Refurbishment

New build gives you a drawing and a level slab. A refurbishment gives you a set of steps built in 1974, a doorway that opens the wrong way, and an access audit saying the handrail isn’t good enough.

The second job is the more common one, and most of the difficulty is in the survey rather than the product. Here’s what to measure, what to send us, and what will move your delivery date. If you need the rules first, start with the DDA handrail requirements.

Why Retrofit Is a Different Problem

On a refurbishment you are not designing a route. The route exists. You are fitting a compliant handrail to whatever is already there, without closing the entrance, and usually without a budget for groundworks.

That points at a modular system for four practical reasons.

No hot works. Fittings tighten onto the tube with a hexagon key. No welding permit, no welder, no fire watch on an occupied building.

Cut on site if you have to. Tube can be cut and assembled on site, so a dimension that turns out wrong doesn’t stop the job.

Adjustable, then reversible. If the setting-out is wrong, sections unbolt and move. A welded rail has to be cut out.

No wet trades. Where the rail can be wall-fixed or bolted down, you avoid concrete and the curing time that comes with it.

If the route needs a ramp rather than steps, see DDA ramp requirements.

Wall-Fixed or Freestanding

The first decision, and it usually makes itself.

Wall-fixed where there is a sound wall running alongside the route at the right position. The DDA745 and DDA746 wall brackets carry the 42.4mm rail off the wall. Fewer components, no baseplates, nothing standing in the clear width. This is the cleanest retrofit there is.

Freestanding uprights where there is no wall, where the wall is in poor condition, or where the route is open on both sides. Uprights on A12 base plates, with the 42.4mm rail carried on DDA747 or DDA748 handrail brackets clear of the grip line.

Both, on the same run, is common and perfectly acceptable: wall-fixed along the building, freestanding where it crosses open ground. The rail stays continuous through the change because the fittings are designed to hand over between the two.

Where you have a wall, check what it’s made of before you commit. A soft brick, a rendered blockwork skin, or a cavity wall with a weak outer leaf will not hold a rail that people put weight on, and the fixing is your responsibility rather than the bracket’s.

What to Survey

Send us these and we can produce a fitting schedule and cutting list. Send us fewer and we’ll be guessing.

Levels. Total rise from bottom to top, and the rise at each change of level. This is the number everything else follows from.

Lengths. Length of each run, and the position of every landing, corner or change of direction.

Angles. Slope angle if you have it. If you don’t, give us rise and run and we’ll work it out.

Obstructions. Doors and their swing, downpipes, meter boxes, gullies, existing bollards, anything within the clear width.

Substrate. What the rail is fixing into: concrete, tarmac, paving, brick, blockwork or decking. This determines the fixings and sometimes the whole approach.

Which side. Which side of the route the rail goes, or both.

Terminations. Where the run has to start and stop, and what’s at each end.

Photographs help more than people expect. A dimensioned sketch with four photographs beats a tidy drawing with no context.

Setting Out on Site

Two things catch people out on a retrofit.

Do not pre-drill. These are galvanised castings and the published dimensions cannot be precise, so bolt holes drilled in advance from a drawing rarely line up. Set the fitting in position, mark through it, then drill. On a refurbishment where the substrate is uneven anyway, this saves a lot of re-drilling.

Measure the clear width from the rail, not the wall. The handrail, brackets and any guarding all sit inside the route. On a tight existing path, a wall-fixed rail can be the difference between a compliant clear width and a non-compliant one.

Upright Spacing on an Existing Structure

If the handrail is also guarding a drop, the spacing of the uprights is governed by the design load, not by where the old posts happened to be.

The load capacity is determined principally by the diameter, wall thickness and frequency of the uprights. Reusing the existing post positions because the fixings are already there is the single most common retrofit mistake. The old rail may have been built to a lower design load, or to no stated design load at all.

Check the design load in the specification, then set out the posts from the upright spacing table rather than from the holes in the ground. Where no design load is stated, BS 6180 and BS 6399 are the reference documents.

What Affects the Date

Galvanised, from stock. Key clamp orders deliver next day across the UK. Orders including tube usually take two to three days, depending on location and requirement.

Powder coated. Not stock. Powder coating in a RAL colour is quoted on request and adds time. See how to specify the finish. Specify it at the outset so it is built into the price and the programme rather than added afterwards.

Cutting. Free, and done in-house before despatch. Send the cutting list with the order and it arrives ready to assemble.

Delivery is charged at cost and confirmed before despatch, based on weight, volume and location.

Where the Duty Sits

The Equality Act 2010 duty to make reasonable adjustments sits with the building owner or occupier. On a construction project, CDM 2015 duties sit with the client and the contractor.

We supply the handrail to your specification with technical data, and site-specific compliance rests with the duty holder. That’s worth stating plainly on a retrofit, because the temptation is to assume the supplier has checked the layout. Unless you have sent us the survey, we haven’t seen your site.

Send Us What You’ve Got

A drawing, a sketch, or dimensioned photographs. We’ve been manufacturing Fisher Alvin key clamps for over fifty years with a range of more than 300 fittings, so there is usually a way to do what an awkward existing building needs without fabricating anything.

Send us your plan or request a quote and we reply within one hour in working hours, or call the sales office on 01905 779944.

DDA Handrail Retrofit FAQs

Can DDA Handrails Be Retrofitted to an Existing Building?

Yes, and it’s the most common application. Fittings tighten with a hexagon key, tube can be cut on site, and sections can be unbolted and repositioned if the setting-out needs adjusting. None of that is possible with a welded rail.

Should the Rail Be Wall-Fixed or Freestanding?

Wall-fixed where there is a sound wall in the right position: fewer components and nothing standing in the clear width. Freestanding uprights on base plates where there is no wall or the wall is in poor condition. Both on one run is common and the rail stays continuous through the change.

What Do You Need from Me to Quote a Retrofit?

Levels and total rise, run lengths, landing and corner positions, obstructions within the route, what the rail is fixing into, which side of the route it goes, and where the run starts and stops. A dimensioned sketch with photographs is ideal.

Can I Reuse the Existing Post Positions?

Only if they satisfy the design load. Upright spacing is governed by tube diameter, wall thickness and design load, and an older rail may have been built to a lower load, or to none. Set out from the upright spacing table, not from the existing holes.

Can I Pre-Drill Fixings Before Delivery?

No. These are galvanised castings and the dimensions cannot be precise, so pre-drilled holes rarely line up. Set the fitting, mark through it, then drill.

How Quickly Can a Retrofit Handrail Be Delivered?

Key clamp orders deliver next day across the UK; orders including tube usually take two to three days. Powder coated product is not stock and needs additional time, so specify the finish at the outset.